The Fall Of The House Of Usher

The short stories “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe and “House Taken Over” by Julio Cortazar are two well known works of literature that encompass unique literary styles. Poe utilizes Gothic literature in his story, a style of writing that incorporates elements of darkness, gloom, drama, and intense descriptions. On the other hand, Cortazar uses Magical Realism and its realistic characters, setting, and fantastic and unusual events to tell his tale. Despite the two being completely different genres, they share many similar traits, specifically relating to fear.

An analytical essay of “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and “Where is Here?”

“Fear is not real. It is the product of thoughts you create. Danger is very real, but fear is only a choice.” Fear is not something that is always real, such as when Usher was scared but there was nothing to fear yet, but the danger at the end of the story, especially for Ushers friend, was something to fear for. In the Gothic Literature short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, the setting is somber and creates an illusion of darkness. On the other hand, “House Taken Over” by Julio Cortazar, portrays the idea of magical realism in, which setting is more realistic and less gloomy. Although Gothic Literature and Magical Realism are similar, there are also many differences, especially in their settings.

Once when I was young I went to the amusement park with my big brother. My brother always kept saying to me that roller coaster rides are scary and dangerous, which made me imagine them really being scary and dangerous. “The fall of the house of usher” written by Edgar Allen Poe and “house taken over” written by Julio Cortazar are both short stories. It will be about fear and how the imagination can sometimes cause fear. Fear is a response to physical or emotional danger, whether the threat is real or imagined.

I just just glanced through my phone, swiping quickly to going through the photos of everyone’s snapchat story. But one word caught my eye: fire; it caught my eye but I did not really think about it afterwards. Several hours later however, I was with my friends working on our english essay when all of a sudden, I look up to see what looked like an enormous blanket of brown dust staining the clear blue sky. There was a distinct line between the perfectly blue sky and the disgusting smoke from the fire and this transformation that occurred so out of the blue causing both shock and awe from me and my friends. Transformations play a role in stories meant to scare us by creating an atmosphere of discomfort and uncertainty because the characters are unable to control the situation around them. Through the short stories of “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “House Taken Over”, and “Where is Here”, the authors of those stories all elicit an atmosphere of fear through the combined transformations of setting, mood, and characters. “The Fall of the House of Usher” change occurs at the climax of the story where Roderick Usher falls into insanity. “House Taken Over’ changes when the mysterious intruders fully overtake the house and the siblings are forced to flee. In “Where is Here” the stranger leaves the home which causes the house to fade in color, draining it of life.

     One of the central themes underlying the short story, The Fall of the House of Usher, is that of the nature of the house. The way it is described and the way it is so mysterious. Another central theme about this story is the nature of the people that live in the house. They are portrayed very much in the same manner throughout the story. Thus, they have several similarities with each other. All of which are of a bad feeling, showing how bad things are for the people and the house. These similarities are very well laid out in the story and are, I believe, meant to be something to be considered when reading it.

Settings in stories make up the world that characters live in. It sets the tone and mood for readers to feel as they read. Two short stories that have similar plots, but are from different genres are “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “House Taken Over.” “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe seeks to evoke a gothic mood from the description of the house to leave readers in suspense, while “House Taken Over” by Julio Cortazar focuses on a lighter, realistic view of everyday life.

The Fall of the House of Usher and Where is Here, are two short stories that have similar settings. They are similar because for one, the authors were both dark, and mysterious, which would mean that they enjoyed dark and mysterious things. So in return, they're writings came out to be dark and mysterious. One of the similarities between the settings of the two short stories is that they were both written in the 1800's, so all of the houses were much more extravagant, and much more detail, so houses the characters are living in are very magnificent. Another similarity between the two is where the stories take place; in the 1800's, where if you did anything remotely bad, you were sinned for the rest of your life. The last similarity between the setting of the short stories is the characters in the stories. In each of the stories a visitor shows up, and is somewhat forced to help in completing a task with the main character that they came to visit.

In the story “ The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, has an American romanticism with its characters. Edgar Allan Poe is considered a Dark Romanticism because of the way he writes his poems and short stories centered around the concept of evil human nature, darkness, and death. Roderick and Madeline Usher were said to be related during the middle of the story; they were twins. It explained how they were sick, Roderick had a mental disorder and Madeline was physically sick. As the narrator enters the desolate house, he finds both Roderick and his sister in a severe state of depression and they both appear sick like. The narrator tries to make Roderick feel better, but Roderick wouldn’t budge. Roderick thinks that the house is making him sick and making him to appear crazy.

Throughout history, various works of literature compelled the readers to feel a specific way. The authors used different techniques to illustrate emotions toward their audience. Specifically, Edgar Allan Poe, author of The Fall of the House of Usher, uses literary elements, such as imagery, characterization and word choice, to portray the build up the sense of horror.

There is no tour of the crypt? A well known short story called “the Fall of the House of Usher,” by Edgar Allen Poe was made into a movie in 1960 and there are many differences. In the movie the main character had a name. Also, the main character was engaged to Madeline. The main character was never sent a letter from Roderick Usher.

Imagination overcomes reason when a person is surrounded by the unknown. The utter confusion and chaos of a moment can drive even the sanest of people to imagine things that can only be envisioned by a madman. In the short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” this happens throughout the story, but you can see a mere glimpse of this sort madness in this sentence: “I looked upon the scene before me--upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain--upon the bleak walls--upon the vacant eye-like windows--upon a few rank sedges--and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees--with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium--the bitter lapse into everyday life--the hideous dropping off of the veil.”.

In The Fall of the House of Usher, the narrator and his friend, Roderick Usher, are living in a mysterious, dark house. The paragraph starts off with a description of a powerful gust of wind attacking the house. Beginning with “impetuous fury” makes the reader think of natural disasters and destruction, maybe even a feeling of being attacked. The sentence however has a rhythm, the words “ impetuous”, “gust”, and “us” all end in a long sounded s, correlating the sound of a snake. This also brings a bad connotation to the sentence, due to the idea that snakes are considered malicious.

Rabindranath Tagore and Edgar Allan Poe’s marvellous creations, The Hungry Stones and The Fall of the House of Usher, respectively, give an account of the narrators’ strange and inexplicable experience of the supernatural world in haunted palaces. These two short stories, which can be considered to be a dream vision and a sort of phantasmagoria, conglomerate certain situations, real and unreal, and certain events, factual and illusory. The very titles of the stories are suggestive enough of their mystery and enchantment. Both the stories are full of supernatural touches and suggestions and show the writers’ skill to build up an elusive fantasy in an engaging way. Although the two stories exclusively deal with the eerie, mysterious supernatural

Poe and Hawthorne are the most significant American writers of 19th century. They have their own way of relating to their audiences that’s varied and similar at the same time. Poe’s writing involves the reader emotionally. Hawthorne on the other hand considers author’s imagination important and paints a picture based on it. These innovative thoughts and experimentations in language have forever changed what we appreciate in writing. Poe and Hawthorne used various techniques in their writing including symbolism, allegory, suspense, characterization and great use of setting to make it very real to the reader. Both gothic writers set a different mood for the reader in their writings.